Manufacturing Consent

I have to admit that it took me a good three tries to watch this film in entireity. The combination of the 1980's film editing and music selection, mixed with the lulling and slightly monotonic voice of Noam Chomsky, was enough to deter my attention span in my first two attempts. However, the media tool that finally lured me in was the presence of silence. I was at a point where I had the audio of the film playing in the background while distracted by something else, and only stopped to turn back to the screen once I realized the familiar, single-note voice that had been filling my ears for the majority of the film's first half had suddenly grown quiet. When I did focus in on the screen's image, I noticed a scrolling of power-company names that I recognized. The change in style was enough to make me rewind and actually listen to what Chmosky had said. I think this experience fits quite well with Chomsky's interpretation of the numbing saturation of the media in our everyday lives and how accustomed we are to flocking to the same forms of propaganda to absorb information. The third time around, I actually enjoyed what Chomsky had to say about his questioning of media in society and how he mockingly implemented so many of those discussed techniques in his own film. The variety of presentation to his audience is what finally pulled me in, and once it had, I was hooked.